order_of_the_sestrifandomcom-20200214-history
Living Quarters
Living Quarters The sisters have traditionally inhabited traditional abbeys to ward off suspicion and concern surrounding their order. Typically, they use abandoned monastery facilities and make slight alterations to the architectural layout; for example, creating large training rooms and building libraries. However, much of the plan stays the same and accommodates the sisters in a similar way to a religious living space. The Order of Sestri abbey located in Florence calls a three story estate with four wings their home. East Wing The East wing houses the women of the Order. The dormitory holds up to 100 beds for the women and for women who are yet to be initiated into the Order. The women do the laundry in a room behind the dormitory that holds other cleaning and housekeeping supplies. North Wing The North Wing is the area of the estate where the religious ceremonies take place. The biggest room in the North Wing is an enormous chapel where the sisters take part in their sacraments. Directly attached to the chapel is the confessional room for the women to gather and repent on Friday evenings. An important quality that the abbess of the order emphasizes is the dangers of stress, so a meditation room was created in the North Wing for the women to alleviate their bodies and minds. The meditation room overlooks the gardens that the women take care for and is made mostly of windows to optimize the amount of relaxing scenery the women can view during their meditations. ' ' South Wing The South Wing is the main area of the estate where dining and meal preparation occurs. The largest room in the South Wing is the dining room, set up with rows of refectory tables to encourage the women to take part in conversation with their fellow sisters. The dining room has a small alcove to put dirty dishes, that leads directly to the cleaning and washing stations. Behind the dining room is the kitchen that spans across the back of the castle with large windows to view the gardens outside. The gardens provide the fruits and vegetables for meals, as well as numerous flower beds for aesthetic purposes ''' '''West Wing The West Wing is the educational facility for women in the order.This wing is spanned with many classrooms, each with a specific field in mind. The women have rooms for their basic education but also rooms for learning about varied topics such as botany and fine art. The botany classroom specifically leads to the massive gardens around the estate. Since some women come into the order with a myriad of knowledge so there are spare classrooms for women to teach about their field. The library is in between the main classrooms and the study rooms for the women. The educational wing holds an auditorium. Sometimes during leisure times a sister will hold a lecture or talk about a topic of their choosing, and any woman is allowed to attend. The West Wing is where the women learn self defense in the gym next to the children’s gymnasium. The training room is open during leisure times for women to practice, but not on Sundays. The infirmary is also on this floor. Upper Floors The entire third floor of the estate is dedicated to managerial and charitable functions of the order. The third floor was chosen as the location for these rooms because it is the least accessible and most private floor. The abbess has a small office connected to a larger meeting hall. The meeting hall mainly serves as a place to discuss topics with people who are not part of the order such as upcoming charities and potential donations. Directly next to the abbess’ office is the financial room. This room stores extra money and recent donations made by mostly anonymous donors. A smaller room was constructed for new sisters to be initiated and evaluated in. The room connecting to the initiation room is of the same size and holds the information of the charities that each women advocates for and the new charities that a recently initiated sister can take on. A separate room contains the history of the order and a place for a sister to record what happens each day. All women are encouraged to keep a journal that will one day join the other daily records in this room. This history room is meant to preserve the knowledge of the order and for future generations to read about past sisters.